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  <div class="section" id="additional-tools-and-scripts">
<span id="tools-and-scripts"></span><h1>5. Additional Tools and Scripts<a class="headerlink" href="#additional-tools-and-scripts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="pyvenv-creating-virtual-environments">
<span id="scripts-pyvenv"></span><h2>5.1. pyvenv - Creating virtual environments<a class="headerlink" href="#pyvenv-creating-virtual-environments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Creation of <a class="reference internal" href="../library/venv.html#venv-def"><em>virtual environments</em></a> is done by executing the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv</span></tt> script:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">pyvenv</span> <span class="o">/</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">to</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">new</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">virtual</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">environment</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Running this command creates the target directory (creating any parent
directories that don&#8217;t exist already) and places a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv.cfg</span></tt> file in it
with a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">home</span></tt> key pointing to the Python installation the command was run
from.  It also creates a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bin</span></tt> (or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Scripts</span></tt> on Windows) subdirectory
containing a copy of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">python</span></tt> binary (or binaries, in the case of
Windows).  It also creates an (initially empty) <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages</span></tt>
subdirectory (on Windows, this is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Lib\site-packages</span></tt>).</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<p class="last"><a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/installing.html#virtual-environments">Python Packaging User Guide: Creating and using virtual environments</a></p>
</div>
<p>On Windows, you may have to invoke the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv</span></tt> script as follows, if you
don&#8217;t have the relevant PATH and PATHEXT settings:</p>
<div class="highlight-none"><div class="highlight"><pre>c:\Temp&gt;c:\Python34\python c:\Python34\Tools\Scripts\pyvenv.py myenv
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or equivalently:</p>
<div class="highlight-none"><div class="highlight"><pre>c:\Temp&gt;c:\Python34\python -m venv myenv
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The command, if run with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">-h</span></tt>, will show the available options:</p>
<div class="highlight-none"><div class="highlight"><pre>usage: venv [-h] [--system-site-packages] [--symlinks] [--clear]
            [--upgrade] [--without-pip] ENV_DIR [ENV_DIR ...]

Creates virtual Python environments in one or more target directories.

positional arguments:
  ENV_DIR             A directory to create the environment in.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help             show this help message and exit
  --system-site-packages Give access to the global site-packages dir to the
                         virtual environment.
  --symlinks             Try to use symlinks rather than copies, when symlinks
                         are not the default for the platform.
  --copies               Try to use copies rather than symlinks, even when
                         symlinks are the default for the platform.
  --clear                Delete the environment directory if it already exists.
                         If not specified and the directory exists, an error is
                         raised.
  --upgrade              Upgrade the environment directory to use this version
                         of Python, assuming Python has been upgraded in-place.
  --without-pip          Skips installing or upgrading pip in the virtual
                         environment (pip is bootstrapped by default)
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Depending on how the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">venv</span></tt> functionality has been invoked, the usage message
may vary slightly, e.g. referencing <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv</span></tt> rather than <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">venv</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.4: </span>Installs pip by default, added the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--without-pip</span></tt>  and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--copies</span></tt>
options</p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.4: </span>In earlier versions, if the target directory already existed, an error was
raised, unless the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--clear</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--upgrade</span></tt> option was provided. Now,
if an existing directory is specified, its contents are removed and
the directory is processed as if it had been newly created.</p>
</div>
<p>The created <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv.cfg</span></tt> file also includes the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">include-system-site-packages</span></tt> key, set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">true</span></tt> if <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">venv</span></tt> is
run with the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--system-site-packages</span></tt> option, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">false</span></tt> otherwise.</p>
<p>Unless the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--without-pip</span></tt> option is given, <a class="reference internal" href="../library/ensurepip.html#module-ensurepip" title="ensurepip: Bootstrapping the &quot;pip&quot; installer into an existing Python installation or virtual environment."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">ensurepip</span></tt></a> will be
invoked to bootstrap <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pip</span></tt> into the virtual environment.</p>
<p>Multiple paths can be given to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pyvenv</span></tt>, in which case an identical
virtualenv will be created, according to the given options, at each
provided path.</p>
<p>Once a venv has been created, it can be &#8220;activated&#8221; using a script in the
venv&#8217;s binary directory. The invocation of the script is platform-specific:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="18%" />
<col width="24%" />
<col width="58%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Platform</th>
<th class="head">Shell</th>
<th class="head">Command to activate virtual environment</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td>Posix</td>
<td>bash/zsh</td>
<td>$ source &lt;venv&gt;/bin/activate</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>fish</td>
<td>$ . &lt;venv&gt;/bin/activate.fish</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>csh/tcsh</td>
<td>$ source &lt;venv&gt;/bin/activate.csh</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td>Windows</td>
<td>cmd.exe</td>
<td>C:&gt; &lt;venv&gt;/Scripts/activate.bat</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>PowerShell</td>
<td>PS C:&gt; &lt;venv&gt;/Scripts/Activate.ps1</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>You don&#8217;t specifically <em>need</em> to activate an environment; activation just
prepends the venv&#8217;s binary directory to your path, so that &#8220;python&#8221; invokes the
venv&#8217;s Python interpreter and you can run installed scripts without having to
use their full path. However, all scripts installed in a venv should be
runnable without activating it, and run with the venv&#8217;s Python automatically.</p>
<p>You can deactivate a venv by typing &#8220;deactivate&#8221; in your shell. The exact
mechanism is platform-specific: for example, the Bash activation script defines
a &#8220;deactivate&#8221; function, whereas on Windows there are separate scripts called
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">deactivate.bat</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Deactivate.ps1</span></tt> which are installed when the venv is
created.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.4: </span><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">fish</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">csh</span></tt> activation scripts.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>


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  <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">5. Additional Tools and Scripts</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#pyvenv-creating-virtual-environments">5.1. pyvenv - Creating virtual environments</a></li>
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